Vanishing Act Quotes

“Most important of all, the will for peace on the part of peace-loving nations must express itself to the end that nations that may be tempted to violate their agreements and the rights of others will desist from such a course. Unfortunately, as a catalyst for a more robust foreign policy, the speech backfired. Leading newspapers mocked the content, and opinion polls suggested even more Americans now identified with isolationism. Washington’s reluctance was noted in Tokyo, and the Chinese capital of Nanjing fell just two months after Roosevelt’s speech. Emboldened”
― Dan Hampton, Vanishing Act: The Enduring Mystery Behind the Legendary Doolittle Raid over Tokyo

“It seems to be unfortunately true that the epidemic of world lawlessness is spreading. When an epidemic of physical disease starts to spread, the community approves and joins in a quarantine of the patients in order to protect the health of the community against the spread of the disease. War is a contagion, whether it be declared or undeclared. It can engulf states and peoples remote from the original scene of hostilities. We are determined to keep out of war, yet we cannot insure ourselves against the disastrous effects of war and the dangers of involvement.”
― Dan Hampton, Vanishing Act: The Enduring Mystery Behind the Legendary Doolittle Raid over Tokyo

“Emmens had to drop out of the University of Oregon so his older brother could finish and go on to medical school. “Flying always fascinated me,” he fondly recalled, and he became acquainted with the manager of Medford’s airport, who taught him to fly the Cub. One day his mother showed him an ad in the paper that read: COME TO THE WEST POINT OF THE AIR, RANDOLPH FIELD, AND”
― Dan Hampton, Vanishing Act: The Enduring Mystery Behind the Legendary Doolittle Raid over Tokyo

“These precision tools drill, cut, press, and bore; they are the beating heart of the process, and without them there is nothing for assembly lines to assemble. For example, eighty-seven tools were required to build a single propeller shaft, and in 1940 virtually all such tools came from just two hundred companies, most in New England with fewer than one hundred employees.”
― Dan Hampton, Vanishing Act: The Enduring Mystery Behind the Legendary Doolittle Raid over Tokyo